Earlier this year, Fox criticized mainstream
media outlets for allegedly focusing on Santorum’s opposition to same-sex
marriage while ignoring President Obama’s own refusal to support marriage
equality. Now that Santorum appears to be among the
current GOP frontrunners, Fox has resumed
blaming news outlets for bringing up his anti-gay history.

Fox & Friendsco-host Brian Kilmeade led adiscussion Wednesday about the media’s alleged “double standard when it comes
to social issues”:

The claim that Obama hasn’t received “backlash” for his
opposition to marriage equality is false. Ever since the president
announced in October 2010 that his position on same-sex marriage was “evolv
[ing],” he’s been grilled by mainstream and progressive media outlets alike
for his unwillingness to fully embrace marriage equality. MSNBC and CNN hosted
a variety of gay activists who urged Obama to “get on with it” and
criticized him for “push[ing] the snooze button” on gay
marriage. White House press secretary Jay Carney
is consistently asked about Obama’s failure to endorse marriage equality,
recently being forced to explainhow the president’s position differs from Santorum’s.

Moreover, the claim that --
as one Fox guest put it -- Santorum
“believes exactly the same thing” Obama believes in terms of same-sex issuesis also false. While both agree that the institute of marriage
should be reserved for heterosexual couples, similarities end there:

In other words, counter to Fox’s claim, Santorum’s anti-gay
politics go well above and beyond Obama’s stated personal opposition to
same-sex marriage. Now that he seems to be leading the GOP pack, Santorum
should expect to come under moremedia scrutiny
for his history of opposing LGBT equality.